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Etat Libre d’Orange True Lust ~ fragrance review

Posted by Angela on 17 March 2015 6 Comments

Etat Libre d'Orange True Lust, brand image

One of the hazards of reviewing fragrances for so long is that I can’t always remember what I’ve sampled. When I read that Etat Libre d’Orange True Lust combined Putain des Palaces and Dangerous Complicity, I drew a blank on what that might smell like. I even had to go back to confirm that I’d reviewed Putain des Palaces at all.

On rereading the reviews, it started to come back. Both fragrances are feminine, silk-stocking-ed sort of perfumes. Putain has a feral kick while Complicity might be the prettier of the two, although it lost my interest as it dried down. Now that I’ve smelled True Lust, I’m not sure why Etat Libre bothered to combine them. All three fragrances are lovely, and none is ferociously different from the other, at least not in mood.

True Lust comes with the tag line “Rayon Violet de Ses Yeux.” Its notes include rum, ginger, rose, violet, coconut, osmanthus, lily of the valley, jasmine, ylang-ylang, tangerine, rice powder, ambergris, leather, animalic notes and sandalwood. In brief, True Lust combines the fruit, osmanthus, and jasmine headiness of Dangerous Complicity with Putain des Palaces’s face powder and animalic notes.

As was true for Dangerous Complicity, True Love’s delicious first half hour of gingery citrus and tingly florals is my favorite part of the ride. True Lust adds Putain des Palaces’s hint of body odor to the mix, but it isn’t as bawdy as, say, Rochas Femme. As time wears on, True Lust’s brighter notes fade into rice powder, but its animalic notes persist with a hint of what smells like passion fruit.

At this point, Dangerous Complicity would have been settling into a warm and boring amber, wood and cashmeran, but True Lust simply sucks in its sillage and quietly fades away, still hanging onto its powder and hint of fruit and body odor. Eventually the animalic notes give up, and a neutral powdery wood takes over. True Lust smelled best on me when I braved past dabs and slathered the whole sample vial on my arm, but even that amount dialed down to pianissimo after an hour or so of wear.

Etat Libre d'Orange True Lust bottle and box

My verdict? If you love Putain des Palaces, you’ll probably like True Lust, but I’m not sure you’d have a reason to switch. If you like Dangerous Complicity but can’t handle animalic notes, don’t even try True Lust. If you haven’t tried any of the three, and you like aldehydic florals with animalic notes and fruit, see if you can’t get your hands on a decant of Amouage Jubilation 25.

Etat Libre d'Orange True Lust is available in 100 ml Eau de Parfum for $145. For information on where to buy it, see Etat Libre d’Orange under Perfume Houses.

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Etat Libre d’Orange La Fin du Monde ~ fragrance review
Etat Libre d’Orange Bijou Romantique ~ fragrance review
Guerlain Vega and Etat Libre d’Orange Vraie Blonde ~ fragrance review

Filed Under: perfume talk
Tagged With: etat libre dorange

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6 Comments

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  1. sweetgrass says:
    17 March 2015 at 2:51 pm

    I’m generally a fan of ELdO, so I want to at smell this one. I haven’t tried Dangerous Complicity, but I already love and own a bottle of Putain des Palaces, so I don’t imagine I will need a bottle of this one too.

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    • Angela says:
      17 March 2015 at 3:19 pm

      I’d love to know what you think of it! Dangerous Complicity does have (to me, anyway) a super compelling first 20 minutes, and True Lust uses some of that.

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  2. Merlin says:
    17 March 2015 at 6:15 pm

    Count me in on loving the beginnings of Dangerous Complicity. Then yes, it became dull 🙁 I love the aesthetic of this brand, but unfortunately few of its fumes really work for me…

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    • Merlin says:
      17 March 2015 at 7:38 pm

      Money saved, so should be a smiley, lol! 🙂

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      • Angela says:
        17 March 2015 at 9:35 pm

        Yes! Money saved for something else…

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    • Angela says:
      17 March 2015 at 9:35 pm

      I’m always glad to smell a new ELDO, but they don’t all grab me, either.

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